About

Our current civilization is crumbling, leading to a period of crisis and potential rebirth – what we could call a "second renaissance". There are many terms associated with it: metamodern, metacrisis, integral, teal, liminal web, gameB, regenerative and more.


The Second Renaissance initiative provides an introduction to this moment of civilization crisis and awakening — and a home for a growing community of people who are supportive of a Second Renaissance and working to make it happen.


Who is involved


This project was initiated by Life Itself with the following initial team of curators and advisors.



Curators

  • Rufus Pollock, co-founder Life Itself – Curatorial Lead

  • Catherine Tran, Life Itself Research – Research lead

  • Danielle Johnson, Limicon – Onboarding Lead and Deputy Wiki Lead

  • James Baker, Intentional Society – Curator and Social Designer

  • Lauren Wigmore, Life Itself Comms –Communications

  • Simon Grant, Life Itself Senior Research Associate – Wiki Lead

  • Sylvie Barbier, co-founder Life Itself – Design and Narrative



Advisors

  • Alexander Beiner, co-founder of Rebel Wisdom

  • Daniel Thorson, Emerge Podcast

  • Isabela Granic, McMaster University and Liminal Learning

  • Jamie Bristow, Mindfulness Initiative

  • Joe Lightfoot, Collective Blooming

  • Naryan Wong, Cultivating Leadership and Limicon

  • Oren Slozberg, Commonweal

  • Peter Limberg, the Stoa

  • Phil Chen, Steward of Eon V, Limicon and Ephemeral Group Process

  • Richard Bartlett, The Hum and Microsolidarity


Why: Background and Original Motivation


At Life Itself we've been working in "this space" for a decade.


We started formally mapping this emerging ecosystem in 2019/2020 and in September 2020 released a first, preliminary report "State of Sensemaking". Following a year of further research, in 2021/2022 we published the "Paradigmatic Integral Pragmatic (PIP) Changemakers" report.


This identified there was a growing ecosystem of people who are recognising the need for social change which is:


  • Paradigmatic (or meta-crisis aware): seeking a transformation of the entire social paradigm at both a structural and “ontological” (worldview and narratives) level, i.e. not just incremental reform of existing systems

  • Integrated and Inner-led: integrating the need for “inner” change of (individual and collective) worldviews, values, belief systems, and consciousness – as well as “outer” change of economic, political, and technological infrastructures and policies etc. 


However, the ecosystem is still difficult to discover, engage with, and make sense of. For instance, there are many new terms associated with it: Metamodern, Metacrisis, Integral, Teal, Liminal Web, Game B, Regenerative, and more. It’s hard to understand what they all mean and how they all fit together. There is a lot of information and content out there, comprising many perspectives and approaches. Navigating all of this can be overwhelming and bewildering – including for us too sometimes. 


We've increasingly seen the need to be able to present these ideas and emerging ecosystem to others in an accessible way. In particular, how can we help people to find a path into or through this emerging ecosystem which supports them to realize meaningful changes in their lives and the world around them?


Example

Recently one of our team was talking to Sam, an old friend from college. They were trying to explain to Sam what we are working on:"I start out with the climate crisis which he knows about and how it connects to deeper roots in our cultural paradigm. Sam is interested and asking me many questions. However, quickly I find I'm using terms like polycrisis, metacrisis or teal. These are unfamiliar and I start trying to explain them. We talk for an hour and even then we've only just scratched the surface."I want to be able explain this all in a reasonably simple way, and I want an accessible resource I can point Sam to where he can get started and find out more if he wants …